Need Budget Information

[CruiseFuse]

Our family of 4, which includes 2 teens, got a great deal on our cruise and got a wonderful upgrade to Spa Deck (wooohoooo!). We have also already pre-paid our tips and have our flights to FLL paid for. We know how much our limos are and the cash is set aside for that. NOW - considering that on one port day, we know that we want to spend it at the beach (if Cozumel is open, we know of a great one at a cost of $36pp, lunch and drinks included), and we want to see Dunns Falls and Stingray Cove; we don't shop much, don't really drink much, and really want to relax, have fun and do a little exploring. Less concerned with excursions and would probably prefer an independent guide in port. How much cash/money do you think we can get by with? We're on a fairly tight budget, especially since we're going at Christmas and have other children (grown) to spend on. If it helps, we're going Western Car. on Victory, Dec. 18) Any thoughts on this?

[klfrodo]

Tips pre-paid?? good. Thats a big one. Set a little aside for tipping others such as room service delivery, excursion guides, porters who handle your luggage, taxi drivers, hotel maids, etc etc.

Excursions? You already have that covered

Light drinkers? That keeps things down.

Do the kids drink lots of soda pop? may want to consider a soda card. $25 -$30 per person.

Gambling in the casino????

 

It's really up to you. Some folks could get by with just an additional $100. I couldn't get by without an additional $1500.

 

I'd recommend somewhere in between. It's all up to you

[CruiseFuse]

We were thinking around $1500. Sound right? In that figure, we had already decided on getting the kids the soda cards. Definitely worth the money for them. Also, we plan on tipping our room steward as soon as we see him/her. We learned that on these boards. :)

[mojean]

Uh, don't forget the pictures !!!! After a week's worth you're bound to weaken. Are the kids in camp carnival age? I know they charge extra for the overnight stay they had at least one on the Conquest and there's a fee for renting gameboys are the games. Bingo money if you play.

[mared1]

We were thinking around $1500. Sound right? In that figure, we had already decided on getting the kids the soda cards. Definitely worth the money for them. Also, we plan on tipping our room steward as soon as we see him/her. We learned that on these boards. :)

 

I have seen somewhere to expect to spend about $100 a day - not sure if that was per person or for a couple. You can check how much you have put on your sign and sail card via the TV in your room. I would think $1,500 would be fine given what you had stated.

[CruiseFuse]

Our kids are 15 and 18 so Camp Carnival tipping isn't a problem. Both girls also have their own spending money for souvenirs for their friends, etc. I'm feeling better about what cash we're taking. Thank goodness I'm not a shopper, just a looker. Now that we're going to Costa Maya instead of Cozumel, we're definitely just doing the beach break. Thanks for all the input I've gotten. Hopefully I'll be better at this by the time we take our second cruise (which better be next year - DH? Are you listening?)

[nimbex1970]

we give our kids a set spending amount $100 for souvineers....they're more selective this way and know their limits ahead of time.

 

we always prepare for the just in case and have $750-$1000 on hand, the first for three ports, the second fo four..... if you see something you just have to do that you'll never be able to do again, and only cash is accepted.... frequently we head home with $300 or more in cash. Mind you, we've never traveled in the tight budget season of x-mas:rolleyes:. We use a check (visa) card for our sail and sign and buy the kids the coke card.... any extra fru-fru drinks, cookies or what not come out of their budget.

 

incuded is about $10 pp for room service tips, and each kid gets to buy one picture each, not included in the $100.

 

Now this is our budget, yours will be different, but I suggest a SET budget for the kids with an explanation of what will come out of if and what you'll spend above and beyond that.

 

after you research your excursions, you'll know that for any island tour it's about $25-$45pp depending on the length plus lounge chairs if you rent them, plus guide tip. what adds up is the "jet ski", dolphin swim... ect.... the unusuals.... mom I want to try to snorkel.... $80.

 

as you know, there is nothing wrong with saying... $120 is more than we can spend for a day swimming with the dolphins. We've said this through many a cruise with the kids (3) and they somehow manage to live inside te set budget... and my son saves his money for when he gets home to shop at toys 'r us !,,,,, that stinker!

 

hope this helps

 

carol

[serene56]

Some people give a pretip to the cabin steward--majority of the people dont. I have never given a pre tip to a cabin steward and always got great service. I dont expect him tobe my best friend-- jsut do his/her job. If I need anything extra--I leave a note on the mirror using apsot it note.

 

----

 

on our first cruise we spend very little as we were on a VERy tight budget. I think the most we spent was the excursion to stingray city which by using a private vendor for 25.00pp comapred to going to the same place with Carnival who wanted 50.00

---

 

Formal photos cost 20 bucks each for 8 x 10s. Since your whole family is going I would get one of those. Get your pic taken eahch night at the various background then have fun choising which one to buy- there is no body pushing you to buy--you look at the pics at your liesure. (they throw them awawy the last day.

[ImdaMOM]

We just returned from a 7 day Mexican cruise on the Miracle and I applied

very little restraint and came out suprisingly well for a family of 4. I have

a 17 yr old and 9 yr old. We also had 4 fun days at sea which made it

a little more challenging to keep our sail and sign bill down. We were all

given $25 ship credit because Cozumel was closed and our final sail and

sign was $573, the family we went with had $643. First of all avoid the

drinks with the souvenier glass, it states in the carnival caper that you

can order the same drink of the day for $2.95 vs with the cup $6.95 and

refills $4.95. Regular drinks such as pina colada's and long island ice teas

were under $5 when we wanted something special, otherwise we bought

buckets of beer for $13 (tip included). We chose not to purchase soda

cards and were just fine with all the juice machines more easily accessible

for the kids, myself I drank ice tea and didn't miss the soft drinks. For

photos we only posed for one family one and chose our favorite 8x10 for

$19.95 and just walked past the photographer's while they were taking

pictures of others. We spent about $200 of the $573 in the souvenier shops on board but I would recommend shopping in Jamaica instead. they

will bargain with you and I got 14 T-shirts last year for $44 duty free.

Dunn's river falls is a must but it's only $15 per adult and $12 for kids 2-11. You can take a taxi there reasonably. I highly recommend looking

for tours on-line and not through carnival, but check for recommendations

they will usually take you to the places you want to go. We had the best

excursion last week in Belize for $49 pp which was cave tubing thru Action

Belize. We had our own van, driver and tour guide. We arrived there at

the same time as all the carnival excursion payees which paid $99 for the

same thing. Also for Grand Cayman we simply took our snorkel gear, got

off the boat walked just a few hundred yards where there are stairs to get right in to snorkel (the ? paradise resturaunt has an outside patio and

rents snorkel gear, they also intermittently feed the fish bringing tons of

fish next to the resturaunt). Grand Cayman shopping is expensive but we

walked around and got our hair braided (talked the lady down to $20).

Also when you get off the tender in Grand Cayman there are tour guides

with signs and prices far less than carnival, I'm pretty sure stingray city

was $35 on a sign last week, we went last year and it is something to see. We were going to rent a car for $40 that comes with a sight-seeing

map also if you wanted to see the turtle farm or hell. And you can always

try to bargain with the tours, that's how we got a snorkel trip in Costa

Maya for 8 for $15 pp regularly $35pp and I have no idea what carnival

was charging as we just got off the ship and were walking around. We

have 2 cruises planned with Carnival for 2006 and I now have no fears about the expenses, good luck and have a great time. Take advantage

of all the activities on the ship too, there's some really funny stuff.

[serene56]

You can buy one sovernier cup and get it refilled all week. The small drink of the day is 2.95 plus gratutiy is 8 oz. the refill is 4.75 and is 14 oz.

 

If you want the frozen foo foo drinks-- buy drink coupons 4 for 20 bucks before you go off the carnival gift page... and buy the sovernier cup the first day--- use the coupons for refill.

[campdaan]

we had already decided on getting the kids the soda cards. Definitely worth the money for them. Also, we plan on tipping our room steward as soon as we see him/her. We learned that on these boards. :)

 

Let the kids try the free fountain drinks on the lido. Fruitpunch, Lemonade, Juice, etc. And bring some sodas with you (Adult beverages also) So that when you tip your steward you can request he lets you clear out the minibar for your sodas.

BTW. when you use your soda card they usually open a can and pour it into a cup. They dont give you the can. And Soda cards are pro-rated, they get cheaper by the day.

[serene56]

. And Soda cards are pro-rated, they get cheaper by the day.

 

this is not a true statement for carnival, princess or royal. purchasing a soda card you will have to purchase it for the whole cruise. So even purchasing it on wed you will have to pay the full amount of days.

 

We take our own 12 packs on with us. each of us carries on the bag with the soda in it. We have a small cooler that holds 12 cans - the steward will keep that full of ice. the refrigs in the room are not very cold and our cooler did a better job.. put 6 in the cooler and when we took one out we replaced it with another.

[campdaan]

this is not a true statement for carnival, princess or royal. purchasing a soda card you will have to purchase it for the whole cruise. So even purchasing it on wed you will have to pay the full amount of days.

 

I purchased a soda card for my 2003 Legend cruise. Another person in our group purchased same for less later in the week. My information is based on a 2003 cruise and may not be applicable. I apologize and stand corrrected.

[serene56]

WOW- your firend lucked out-- I woulda complained though. Doesnt seem fair to buy a soda card for all the days whem most days are in a port I would jsut buy he card for sea days.

[CruiseFuse]

Wow, a lot of great advice and tips. I'm far less concerned than I was when I posted this. Thankfully, since our kids are older teens, we have sat down with them and explained the budget. We'll do this again before we leave. I am going to pick up Cokes while in FLL or Miami, prior to boarding. Beer is our alcohol beverage of choice, so the bucket of beer is a definite go. Thanks so much for all the helpful tips. I hope someone else needed this information too.

[campdaan]

Backstory concerning soda cards is that we were newbies and my better half "needed" her diet Coke every morning. Since the Legend is 8 days instead of 7 the soda cards were more expensive. I bought one too seeing as I don't drink adult beverages anymore. I found that I much prefered the Lido fountain drinks as I could also get more quantity if I desired. I never knew that I had a fridge in our room and that my steward would be a willing accomplice to smuggled contraban.

For our second cruise we packed 16oz diet cokes and a case of 16oz plastic bottle Miller Lites for BIL along with a small collapsible cooler in our checked luggage. Found the fridge on the Glory to be adequatly cool.

For Christmas BIL is getting the collapsible cooler from Santa and SIL says he will have some extra "room" in his luggage. And I learned all this from my CRUISECRITIC friends.

 

Have a great cruise cruisefuse, And someday my cruiselog will look like serene56's

[ashlyndalesmommy]

Our kids are 15 and 18 so Camp Carnival tipping isn't a problem. Both girls also have their own spending money for souvenirs for their friends, etc. I'm feeling better about what cash we're taking. Thank goodness I'm not a shopper, just a looker. Now that we're going to Costa Maya instead of Cozumel, we're definitely just doing the beach break. Thanks for all the input I've gotten. Hopefully I'll be better at this by the time we take our second cruise (which better be next year - DH? Are you listening?)

 

Should we tip the Camp Carnival counselors daily,too? I'd hate to not do the right thing when I'm on my cruise. This is the first time I have seen this.:confused:

[DFritz]

CruiseFuse- I'm sure your teens are very trustworthy and whatever you tell them goes. We also travel with teens and we have some basic rules we go over before each cruise to keep them safe and us less worrisome. Thought I would share.

 

Explain the cruise phone use. Cabin to cabin is free of charge. Cabin to home, friends, anyplace off the ship is very expensive. About $10.00 per minute and then some. Kids sometimes think that just because it called home that the call was free as well.

 

Soda pop runs about $2.00 per can with tip and foo-foo drinks $4.00 with tip. They don't need to worry about tipping extra.

 

If the ship has an arcade that uses the seapass card the cost will run about $1.00 or more per game.

 

Safety rules include: Know your curfew time and stick to it so that folks don't worry.

 

Do not go into anybody else's cabin for any reason.

 

Avoid cabin hallways that you don't need to use.

 

Avoid dark corners when you are without family.

 

Don't let someone else buy you a drink or carry the one you ordered other than wait staff. Don't leave your beverage unattended.

 

While in port there are many areas where pot and other illegal substances are easy to come by. Ask them to not go into the back room of any shop.

 

Have fun, make new friends, experience new thrills and enjoy new locations.

 

Hopefully I didn't offend anyone with my advice.

[serene56]

Should we tip the Camp Carnival counselors daily,too? I'd hate to not do the right thing when I'm on my cruise. This is the first time I have seen this.:confused:

 

no-- not daily--but something at the end of the week will be nice. Its also not manatory. If your counselors went above and beyond for your kids...or if they stayed on the ship while you went to a port-- then tip.

[CruiseFuse]

DFritz, I don't see how you could have offended anyone with your suggestions. They're great ideas to share with our girls. In ports, they will be with us at all times, so no worries for us there. My husband and I grew up all over the world so we're pretty familiar with some of the goings on...(Barcelona, Spain is a great place for "bad" teens, and so is Amsterdam - lol)

I've already told them that if they even think of going into someone's room, we will be coming home with one less kid and a funeral to attend. We are giving them a curfew and additional times during the day when they must check in. We are also planning on having dinner together at least 5 of the 7 nights. That should help. Thank you so much for the other tips.